Dawn found them near the
edge of the river plateau, sheltered in a dry, white limestone cave
as they settled down to get some rest.

At least some of them were.
Xena had climbed up the side of the cliff face, and was peering
across the open spaces ahead of them, clinging to the stone like a
large, be-cloaked spider.

Gabrielle was splitting the
difference. She had taken a seat on a bit of ledge near the opening
of the cave, where she could keep an eye on her acrobatic bedmate and
the early morning sun was nicely warming a body still chilled from
the long wet walk the previous night.

She didn’t know what Xena
was doing. Based on the muttering she’d heard from Xena before
she’d started climbing she wasn’t convinced Xena knew what Xena
was doing, though so she didn’t really think asking her about it
was going to get either of them anywhere.

She was bone tired. Every
inch of her wanted to curl up in the sun and sleep despite the
emptiness in her stomach and her desire to keep by Xena’s side.
Though her body seemed to be getting used to very little sleep
and less food she felt she was reaching a limit and hoped Xena would
decide to stay put even for a short while.

Moments later, she heard a
light rasp of leather against stone, and as she looked up, Xena
scaled down the cliff, releasing her hold and dropping the last
bodylength to land near where Gabrielle was sitting. “Urf.”

“Urf?”
Gabrielle willingly turned her attention to her companion. “What
did you see up there?”

“A
mess.” Xena took a seat on the rock next to her and leaned back,
resting her head against the wall with a sigh. “I’ve got a
problem.”

“What
kind of problem? Can I help?”

Xena rolled her head to the
side and regarded Gabrielle. “I dunno.” She said. “How are you
at mass murder? Got any good poison on ya?”

Gabrielle’s adorable, mop
head tilted to one side, and she frowned. “Xena, I don’t think
I’d be very good at mass murdering ants even by mistake.”

Xena chuckled. “Probably
not.” She let her hands rest on her knees, the raw scrapes visible
in the sunlight. “You’re too damn cute to be a ruthless killer
anyway. No one’d believe it.” She sighed. ‘Now me on the
other hand… I could be an innocent wool comber and everyone’d run
from me.”

Gabrielle studied the woman
seated next to her. Xena was in her armor, her skin stained from
their travels, and weapons were hanging literally all over her.
Sitting in there in the sun, weariness plain on her face, she
looked like anything but a queen. “I wouldn’t.”

Xena’s lips quirked.
“You’re a smitted nitwit. You don’t count.”

“One,
two three.. Sure I do.” Gabrielle reached over and covered one of
Xena’s hands with her own. “Are we going to stay here for a
while?”

“Do
you want to?” The queen asked. “You look like you could use a
nap.” She lifted her free hand and reached across her body to push
Gabrielle’s hair back off her face. “Still glad you’re here?”

Gabrielle looked around
them, down at herself, then at Xena. “Well.” She managed a half
grin. “I sorta wish we were both somewhere else.”

“Me
too.” Xena admitted. “Yeah, we’re going to stay here for now.
I want to make for the town, and trying it in daylight with
twenty armored jerks behind me ain’t gonna cut it.” She
idly picked at a bit of her knee armor, it’s edge cut through and
twisted into a jagged point.

She knew it must have gotten
that way in one of her fights, but she had no memory of it. What
was it they called it, the fog of war? She flicked a bit of
dried mud off her leg. Churning cesspit of war, more like it.

“I
thought we were going to try and make Sholeh follow us.” Gabrielle
said. ‘Wasn’t that the plan?”

“Plans
change.” The queen extended her legs gingerly. “There’s
too many of her troops between us and the river. If I make her chase
us, we’ll just run into them and dying is so damn boring.”
She sensed Gabrielle moving, and she turned her head to see her
companion edging up behind her, hands already reaching for her
shoulders.

She leaned forward and
rested her elbows on her knees, accepting the touch gratefully as
Gabrielle started to massage what parts of her shoulders she could
reach with gentle fingers. It was embarrassingly personal but
she was past caring.

“Well,
then I’m sure you’ll come up with a better plan.” Gabrielle
said, confidently. “It’s amazing how you knew those soldiers
would join up with us.”

“Ungh.”

“They
think you’re really sexy.”

Xena’s head turned and she
looked over at Gabrielle, her eyes half obscured by mud stiffened
hair. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Gabrielle eased closer,
forgetting about her own weariness as she responded to the unexpected
note of discouragement in her friend’s voice. Like most of the men
Xena was battered by their travels, her skin stained with mud and
scraped half raw.

She pressed her belly
against Xena’s back as she worked her hands under the hard armor,
to the warm skin underneath, the solid bones evident under her
fingertips. She watched the queen’s head drop forward a little
further and seeing a bare bit of neck, she leaned forward and kissed
it.

Xena grunted softly, and she
took that as an invitation and went back for another kiss, nibbling
the small bump that was part of the queen’s spine after that. She
could feel the tension under her hands slowly relaxing as she worked
her way up the powerful neck.

Xena let her head rest on
her hands, her elbows propped on her knees. She let the thoughts of
Sholeh’s army loose for a few minutes. The warmth of the contact
behind her made her feel like she was briefly caught in a cocoon
someplace else, where a bath was waiting, and a cup of mead and the
softest of soft beds.

There was none of that here,
but Gabrielle’s presence brought her a sense of the comforts of
that life being almost close enough to touch. She drew in a long
breath and released it, as her neck muscles relaxed under the
powerful kneading.

Another nibble, along the
edge of her ear and despite the utterly grungy state she was in,
damned if it didn’t make her feel sexy. “You’re gonna get sick
if you keep eating all that dirt.” She commented.

“It’s
clean there.” Gabrielle disagreed, reaching around and putting her
arms around Xena to hug her. “If we’re going to stay here for a
little while, I found a pond just down that little slope there that
didn’t look too muddy.” She said. “Maybe I could make more
clean spots.”

Xena rubbed her temples with
her thumbs. “Are you propositioning me, muskrat?”

“Well.”
Gabrielle exhaled, right against the skin of Xena’s neck. “I
could be, but I really think you probably want to just be more
comfortable right now.” She got up and came around in front of the
queen, holding her hands out. “Don’t you?”

Xena rested her chin on her
fists, mourning the loss of her masseuse. “If I go with you and let
you have your way with me, will you finish the backrub?”

“Sure.”
Gabrielle grinned. The expression grew as Xena stood and took her
hand, and they turned and walked down the short slope and into the
heavy brush surrounding the cave, that Xena had selected for exactly
that reason.

It was invisible unless you
came right up on it, and the way down into the valley was blocked by
thick stands of heavy underbrush, and a gloomy looking pine forest
that ran closely along the rock wall that separated the valley from
the sea.

It wasn’t safe, of course,
but it was as safe a place as she could find to give her little group
some much needed rest and Xena felt a weariness settling in her own
bones as she followed Gabrielle between two fragrant shrubs and
around a corner and she could already smell the rich scent of water
on the air.

They had to make their way
through a pile of fallen boulders, green with moss, detached from the
wall nearby long ago. Tucked under the branches and edged around by
thick growth the pond appeared dark and murky, but Xena’s nose
detected fresh water and just that made her skin itch all over from
it’s cover of mud.

She found a bit of ledge
above the waterline and they sat down on it together. Xena unlaced
her boots and tugged them off first, lowering her feet into the cool
water with a sigh before she started working on her knee armor.
“Damn.”

Gabrielle was following her
lead, and she wiggled her toes in the dark water for a minute before
she looked down to unbuckle the belt around her waist. “It’s
nice here.”

Xena eased the armor off her
legs and set it to one side, gazing thoughtfully at the battered
limbs beneath, the joints aching as she ran her hands over her knees.
With a soft grunt, she braced her hands on either side of her and
eased into the water, feeling cautiously for the bottom as it came up
over her thighs.

It was cool, but not cold
and it stopped at her waist. “Got any soap?” The queen eyed her
friend, who was lifting her armor over her head, revealing a mud and
blood stained shirt underneath.

“Um..”
Gabrielle set the armor down and reached for the pouch hanging off
the belt she’d dropped near it. “Matter of fact…” She fished
something out. “I sure do.”

Xena leaned against the
rocks and folded her arms over the cool, damp surface. “What would
I do without you?”

Xena merely gazed at her,
then she extended her hand. “Gimme that, and get your ass in here.”
She took the soap and waited as Gabrielle squirmed out of her
leggings, then boldly jumped off the rock into the water in just her
shirt, the sleeves billowing out around her.

She promptly disappeared as
the water closed over her head, with a cloud of surprised bubbles and
a muffled squawk.

Her companion lunged over
and stuck her hand, then arm into the water, grabbing hold of a piece
of cloth and yanking upward, pulling a wet, spluttering, wide eyed
woman to the surface in one good healthy pull.

“Oof.”
Gabrielle gasped. “I didn’t expect that!”

“You’re
such a nut.” Xena hauled her over to the shallows and steadied her
until she found her footing. “At least you washed all the crud
off.. Hey, you’re a blond.”

Gabrielle ducked into the
water and knelt, taking off her shirt and rubbing it briskly. “Yeah,
I felt pretty grungy.” She admitted. “I hate that.”

“You
do?” Xena set the soap down and unlaced her leathers, pulling them
over her head and letting them down into the water to soak. “I
never figured you for that, muskrat, living with sheep and chickens
in your bedroom and all.”

“Xena.”
Gabrielle looked up, then stopped speaking as she merely sat there in
the water, admiring her now naked companion. Xena was backlit by the
dim green light, her hair wafting in the breeze as she worked on
cleaning her armor.

She’d seen Xena naked many
times before, of course. But after being out in the wilds for the
time they’d been, the queen’s body had altered into something
more primal, the muscles standing out clearly under her skin and the
bones showing along the tops of her shoulders and along her ribs.

With her hair a bit
overgrown, and the marks of battle on her, she was so removed from
the women in silk gowns Gabrielle had first known, it was hard to
absorb. But she felt in her heart, as she had from the first,
that this Xena, this dark warrior figure, was the real one. “Wow.”

“What?”
Xena looked up from washing the blood out of her leathers.

“You’re
gorgeous.”

Xena looked around, then
down at herself, then back at Gabrielle. “You hit your head on that
rock or something?” She asked, in a puzzled tone. “I look half
dead.” She draped her armor over the stone and started
scrubbing her arms with the soap. “C’mere.”

Gabrielle waded over to her,
and put her shirt down next to Xena’s leathers. She took the
soap from the queen’s hands and started cleaning her with it. She
scrubbed her powerful back, as Xena turned and leaned against the
shore, releasing a small, tired sigh.

“You
have kind of a lump here.” Gabrielle said, after a few minutes. She
gently felt along Xena’s spine, to it’s base and touched the
tight ball she could feel under the skin.

“Yeah.”
Xena leaned further forward, and rested her head on her arm. “I
twisted the wrong way when I was fighting that jerk back there.”

“Does
it hurt?” Gabrielle tried to carefully knead the spot, feeling the
shift as the queen moved under her touch.

Xena remained silent for a
moment. “Well.” She sighed. “Every gods be damned thing hurts
so it’s hard to tell. I feel like total horsecrap on a cracker.”

The hands on her back
continued their patient massage and she let her body relax, the
gently moving water and the cool stone with it’s mossy scent
slowing her thoughts.

She needed a time out from
the chaos. There was too much happening all at once, and her next
step was either going to lead them off the edge of a cliff, or do
something useful and she was so, just so damned tired of scrambling
and trying to pull a cooked rabbit out of her ass.

“I
love you.” Gabrielle’s voice floated over her right shoulder, as
the scent of soap reached her nose and she felt fingers kneading her
shoulders. “And you know what? I fixed up something over between
those trees I think you could sit on and maybe rest.”

“You
did, huh?”

“Yeah,
I figured maybe you’d like to sit on something other than a rock.”

Xena straightened up and
turned, putting her arms around Gabrielle and bending her head down
to kiss her with simple, sincere passion. She felt Gabrielle’s hand
drop and she caught the soap before it dropped into the water as she
pulled her companion against her and the water evaporated between
them.

Time out.

Gabrielle’s hands slid
down to rest on her hips as they moved together and she pressed her
belly against Xena’s, a pleasant warmth that traveled up her body
and pushed back the exhaustion and banished the hideous insanity of
what they were doing.

Time out.

“Got
something soft for us to sit on over there, huh?” Xena backed her
lips off just enough to speak. “You little scoundrel.” She
returned for another kiss, tasting the faintest touch of berries as
her tongue teased gently against her bedmates.

“Ungh.”

“You
know you could even make Tartarus sweet?”

**

“How
in the Hades did you come up with THIS?” Xena stopped, right in the
middle of a pleasant though damp seduction as she and Gabrielle
managed to sidle together into the tiny clearing the blond woman had
prepared.

“What?”
Gabrielle was totally focused on the bare breast at nose level to
her.

“That.”
Xena unceremoniously put her hand on her bedmate’s head and turned
it so that it was facing the trees instead of her chest. “That over
there. You did that?”

Gabrielle tried to catch her
breath, as her heartbeat slowed a little, and she blinked at the
clearing. “Oh.” She took a deep lungful of air and expelled it.
“That. Ah, yeah, that was me.” She admitted. “Do you like
it?”

Xena released her hold on
her companion and eased around her, ducking past a branch to arrive
in the open space between a group of trees. Strung between them
was a hide, a cowhide by the look, tied to three of the trunks and
suspended above the ground.

It was rough, and a
bit crude, but there was room on it for one person sprawled out or
two people cuddled together and Xena put her hands on her hips and
laughed in genuine amazement. “I”ll be a son of a bacchae.”

Gabrielle put her annoyed
libido on hold, trading off for these words of skewed approval from
her lover. She joined Xena near the contraption, more than a little
pleased with herself. “I used to make these when I had to stay out
watching the sheep.” She said. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“WHere
did you get the hide?” Xena asked. “You weren’t carrying
it.”

“No.”
The blond woman touched it. “It was in the cave. I found it before
the rest of those guys did.”

Xena looked around. The
clearing was surrounded completely by trees and thick brush. She
tried to see through it to the rock wall, and failed, and then tried
to see through it to the valley, and had equally horrible success.

That meant, in this most
unllkely place, she actually could just sit down and relax for a
little while. With an approving grunt, she turned and sat down
on the stretched hide, feeling it move under her as she cautiously
tested the strength of the ropes.

It seemed nice and secure.
Xena laid down on her back on it, gazing up through the leaves at the
placid sky before she lifted her hand and curled her finger in a come
hither gesture. “Get over here.”

Gabrielle didn’t hesitate.
She’d created the hammock in some vague hope that maybe she’d
get to take a nap in it, but having Xena gleefully sprawling over her
roughly put together swing, the queen’s face lit with a happy
grin made her own soul just about sing.

She eased onto the hide next
to Xena, eyeing the ropes nervously for a moment as she hoped they
would hold both their weights, and that she’d tied the darn knots
right. After an unsure, creaking moment, she relaxed and stretched
out, her left side firmly in contact with the queen’s right.

The hammock swung a little,
a soothing motion as they both adjusted to the bizarrely unexpected
comfort. “Wow.” Gabrielle sighed. “It feels really good
not to be sitting on a rock.”

“Or
a tree.” Xena agreed. “Or even a horse.” She flexed her body,
the aches slowly relaxing as her muscles unclenched. Her last night
spent in her camp cot seemed very far away, and she faced the fact
that in truth, she was no longer the rough and tumble youngster she’d
once been.

She’d grown up, and grown
old, and she suspected her earlier self would be horrified at what
she’d become.

Ah well.

“Boy,
I’m tired.” Gabrielle sighed. “I don’t know how you did this
for all that time.”

“I
was an idiot.” Xena promptly answered. “Not to mention, I was too
young and stupid to know what it was like to have something so simple
as a gods be damned pillow.”

“Oh.”

Xena glanced sideways at
her. “So.” She ignored the insanity of them swinging there with
enemy soldiers possibly all around them. “Where’d you learn to
make one of these? I didn’t figure they were big down on the farm.”

Gabrielle half turned, and
snuggled closer, sliding her arm over Xena’s stomach. “It started
with the sheep.”

“Uh
oh.” Xena’s nostrils flared. “I knew there was a sleeping with
sheep story in your past somewhere.”

Gabrielle started laughing,
shaking her head as the giggles worked down her body. “Oh, for the
love of the gods, Xena.”

Xena chuckled.

“I’ve
never slept with a sheep.” The blond woman’s chuckles finally
faded. “Not even accidentally. But I used to have to go out and
watch the flocks when they grazed, in the summertime.”

“Watch
them do what? Chew grass and fart?”

Well. Gabrielle thought back
to those long days of summer she’d spent, alone with the animals
far off in the fields. The memories seemed slightly out of focus, and
she almost felt she couldn’t reach back and touch the girl she’d
been then.

Had it been so very long?
Just three or four seasons, but that seemed a lifetime. She
could just barely remember the scent of clover, and the sound of
birds overhead, and the soft maaaing of the ewes nearby.
“Watch them to make sure they didn’t run off, or that a wolf
didn’t get them.” She explained.

“Gabrielle.”

“Yes?”

“You
were going to throw yourself in front of a pack of wolves to keep
them from getting their lambchops?” Xena’s voice lifted
increduously. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Well.”
It did sound a little crazy. “I don’t know.. I never had to
do that. The worst that ever happened was one of the lambs fell in a
little pit of quicksand and I had to jump in after it.” She
sighed. “Stupid jerky thing.”

Xena listened with half an
ear, her attention focused on the cramps slowly working their way out
of her back. “Did you get it out?”

“After
it bit me, yeah.” Gabrielle said. “Anyway, after I brought
the herd to the pasture, I’d look for a nice spot to sit down and
watch them, but there was always something that made it
uncomfortable. Either it was ants, or mud, or rocks or briars.. So
finally I stole an old hide cloak from the barn and made myself a
little swing seat to sit in.”

“Makes
sense.” Xena watched a bird flit over head, reassured a trifle by
it’s unconcerned presence. “Bet that made it nicer.”

“It
did.” Gabrielle could feel Xena relaxing against her, and she
stroked the queen’s side gently with her thumb. “I used to just
lay there for hours, watching the clouds float past, and making up
stories.”

Xena couldn’t imagine
that. Her early life had been so full of pain and terror sitting and
thinking about anything would have been courting death. She
couldn’t think of herself doing it, but after a moment, she could
imagine Gabrielle back then, probably a mop headed little punk who
talked to rabbits.

“It
was so different than it was at home.” Gabrielle added. “It was
lonely, but it was wonderful, because I could just be there and
imagine all sorts of things, like what were the sheep thinking, and
did fish hold their breaths, and what my life was going to be like,
someday.”

Xena rolled her head to one
side, and peered down at her lover’s profile. “Bet this never
crossed your mind.” She indicated both them, and their
surroundings with one lazy swipe of her hand.

Gabrielle had to smile.
“Um.. No.” She admitted. “I think the craziest thing I ever
imagined for myself was running away to join the traveling circus.”

“I
could be considered a traveling circus.” Xena mused. “Let’s
see.. I”ve been called a viper, a horses ass, a raging bitch.. All
I’d need is a midget and you in a clown suit and we could open up
shop. You think?”

The blond woman buried her
head into Xena’s shoulder and started laughing again helplessly.

Xena chuckled, then let out
a long sigh. “Oh, Gabrielle.” She wrapped her arms around her
companion. “Let’s enjoy this while we can. Tonight we’re going
to sneak into the city there, and you’re gonna have to lead the
way.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,
you.” Xena gave the top of her head a kiss. “I”m not going to
be the only one stuck doing half assed hero crap in this gods be
damned story.”

“Um.”

“If
you can drag a sheep out of quicksand, you can lead my army.”

“Uhhhm.”

“It’s
only an army of twenty six, don’t get your tail all wiggling.”

**

Xena hitched her knee up,
resting her rough wooden bowl on it as she watched the sun start to
slip down behind the treeline. Saving the fact that she didn’t
have a mug of cold ale in her other hand, she was feel ing damn
wonderful at the moment, and the though of traveling the night
through didn’t even faze her.

Being clean, sleeping for
hours, and getting a square meal just did wonders for ya, didn’t
it? She licked her lips. Especially when you were getting
ancient.

“Hey,
Xena?”

“Yees?”

Gabrielle joined her, the
blond woman’s body draped only in her shirt and leggings, her armor
packed safely with her borrowed hide on the back of one of the
soldiers. The late afternoon breeze fluttered the fabric
against her body, and ruffled her newly dried hair, and she exhaled
in some satisfaction as she watched the gilded sky along with her
queen. “That’s so pretty.”

Was it? Xena picked up
a rabbit leg from her bowl and bit a chunk out of it. “You cooked
this.”

“Uh
huh.”

“I
can tell from the taste.” The queen said. “As in, it has one.”

“Thanks.”
Gabrielle took a seat on a nearby rock and sat back. “I’m really
glad those guys cut up that stuff they found first though, because if
I’d had to look at those bunnies alive we’d have ended up with
herb soup for dinner.”

She kicked her feet out,
tasting the rabbit on the back of her tongue with a sense of guilty
enjoyment. Despite her ambivalence about consuming adorable
animals, she’d been really hungry, and the meal had felt darn good
filling her belly.

To have enough to eat, and
time to eat it in, was a luxury they hadn’t known much of since
they’d started the fight and it made her appreciate all over again
the plenty she’d known in the castle over the winter. Funny how
that was, since what she’d known before had been far worse than
they’d experienced out here.

“What
did you say?”

Gabrielle pulled her knees
up and circled them with her arms as she turned her head towards the
queen. “I didn’t say anything.”

It was getting harder for
her to remember what it had felt like to be afraid of Xena, Gabrielle
realized, as she responded to the teasing with a rakish grin. “I
never forget your the queen.” She reassured her companion.
“But honest, I didn’t say anything.”

Xena offered her a bite of
rabbit and she accepted it, nibbling the fingers holding it after she
transferred the morsel back to her teeth to be chewed. “I’m glad
we had a chance to rest today.”

“Rest?”
Xena snickered.

“Well.”
Gabrielle swallowed her bit of rabbit. “Lay down, anyway.”

“Me
too.” The taller woman licked her fingertips. “So. You
ready to go?”

Gabrielle’s expression
sobered. “I guess.”

Xena stood up and whistled,
glancing behind her as she saw the men start to form up and get ready
to move out. “You remember what you’re supposed to do?”
She asked Gabrielle. “You’re not going to screw it up, are ya?”

Good question. “I hope
not..” Gabrielle busied herself snugging tight the laces on her
boots. “But you know, I sure wish Patches were here to go with me.”

Xena glanced at her, then
she half turned and let out another whistle, this one lower, and yet
more strident. After a moment’s silence, the brush was violently
agitated, and as Gabrielle bolted to her feet in surprise, the
branches parted to reveal a shaggy head followed by an equally shaggy
body.

“Patches!”
Gabrielle ran forward to greet her pony, who seemed a bit bemused to
see her. “Where have you been? How did you find us?” She turned
and looked back at Xena, who had folded her arms over her chest and
was smirking. “Wow!”

“Anything
else you want?” Xena allowed herself a moment to enjoy the look of
delight on her lover’s face. “Golden cup, or a carpet to sit on
or something?”

Gabrielle gave the pony a
hug around his neck, then she ran back over to where Xena was, and
threw her arms around the queen to give her a big hug too. “Thanks.
I was really worried about him.”

Xena returned the hug, with
a bittersweet feeling. “Yeah, well… they got the rest of
them.” She told Gabrielle. “This little punk was the only one
that got away.”

Gabrielle went still in her
arms, then she slowly looked up at the queen. “They got Tiger?”

Her lover nodded briefly.
“This morning. I could see them from up there.” She
indicated the wall she’d climbed.

“Wow.
I”m sorry.” The blond woman said, softly, her happiness fading.

“Me
too.” Xena said. “I”m sure they shot him by now.” She added,
with an attempt at offhandedness. “He wont’ let anyone handle
him.” A pang shot through her chest again, seeing again the
picture of men surrounding her beloved stallion and his wild eyes
rolling. “Poor bastard.”

“Oh,
Xena.. Do you want to..”

“No.”
The finality in the queen’s tone was surprising. “It’s just a
horse, Gabrielle.”

Just a horse. Gabrielle gave
her another hug. “Well” She said, after a pause. “Thanks
anyway.. I”m glad to see Patches in any case.”

“I
know.” Xena gave her a kiss on the head. “Go play with him so he
doesn’t regret following us. Give him a fig or something.”

“Okay.”
Her lover released her, and returned to the pony’s side, stroking
his neck and scratching his ears. “Hey there, Patches.” She
managed a smile. “So you got away, huh? You’re such a smartie.”

Patches shoved her in the
chest with his nose, apparently glad to see her in return. He still
had his tack on his back, including his saddle and bags, and she
rummaged in one to find a somewhat withered apple. “Here you go.”
She offered it to him. “It’s not much, but we’ll find you
something better once we get going.”

The pony accepted the treat
genially, munching on it and bobbing his head a few times while
Gabrielle checked his bridle and straightened the straps out. Leaves
had gotten trapped in the leather, and she pulled them out, the scent
of bruised greenery coming to her nose.

She thought about Tiger, her
eyes lifting to watch Xena as she formed up the men to move out. How
badly must her friend feel? She never said much about it, but
Gabrielle could tell she loved the horses, and the big black one in
particular. She knew how she’d have felt if it had been Patches
who’d been captured.

Wow. She gave the pony
another hug, then she took hold of his reins and waited, as the men
gathered around and darkness started to fall around them. Was
there anything she could say to Xena about it? Or would the queen
just want to pretend it didn’t matter?

“All
right, let’s go.” Xena ordered, in a businesslike tone. “Keep
alert, keep moving.” She started forward, motioning for
Gabrielle to join her. “C’mon, muskrat. Grab the runt and get
over here.”

Gabrielle led Patches over
to the queen’s side, and they walked together at the head of their
little force. She tried to think of something she could say to Xena,
to comfort her but in the end, she merely reached over and took her
friends hand, and clasped it, feeling the powerful fingers tighten
around hers in a heartfelt squeeze.

Things felt all upside down
again. They were headed towards the city, she was committed to
something she wasn’t sure she could do, and their future seemed
more in doubt now than it had even a day ago. As the path unwound in
front of them, a barely seen opening in the brush, she hoped things
would work out all right.

She hoped she didn’t screw
things up too badly.

Xena released her hand, and
settled her arm around Gabrielle’s shoulders instead, pulling her
closer, and shortening her stride so they matched. They walked
along in silence as the twilight faded and stars began to show
overhead, bathing them in faintest silver.

An owl hooted. Then
far off, there was a scream, a hoarse voice raised in agony, but the
small band walked on without pause, leaving whatever that trouble was
behind them.

**

“Okay.”
Gabrielle peered through the pre dawn gloom at the walls of the
riverside city. She could see guards all around, and there
seemed to be soldiers everywhere. “You want me to just walk up
there and ask to go in?”

“Yes.”

“I
thought you liked me.”

Xena gave her companion a
slap on the butt. “You’re not a threat. They won’t kill you.”
She said. “I hope.” She added, after a moment. “I need you to
get inside, and get us some allies.”

Gabrielle mostly felt just
scared. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“Sure
you do.”

“No,
I really don’t.”

Xena slapped her again.
“Listen, muskrat. You charmed me. How hard could it be to charm a
bunch of lusty farmboys who were left behind to guard the gates?”

Gabrielle edged to one side
to avoid being hit again. “Well.. But I don’t know how I charmed
you.” She answered, unhappily. “I dont know what to do, Xena. I
‘m going to get up there and just sound crazy.”

Xena took her by the
shoulders and they faced each other. She studied Gabrielle’s
face in the dim light, seeing true fear there, and her own expression
gentled a little. “Listen. You can handle this.” She said. “They
don’t know who you are, Gabrielle. You’re just a kid from the
countryside, coming to the big city to tell stories and make a few
dinars. No big deal.”

Gabrielle felt like crying.
“Xena, I can’t do this. I”m scared.” She whispered, glancing
past the queen to where the men were waiting patiently hidden in the
brush. ‘I can’t just walk right up there!”

“Shh.”
The queen cupped her cheek with a surprisingly gentle hand. “You’re
not going to be walking right up there.”

The blond woman’s
shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Well, I thought you said..”

‘You’re
riding.” Xena patted her cheek. “LIsten.” Her voice
dropped to a bare whisper. “I’ll be right behind ya. Don’t
worry about it. Just get in there, get to that back gate, and get it
open for us. That’s all ya gotta do!”

That’s all. Just the
thought of leaving Xena, and going alone down that long road was
scaring Gabrielle close to speechless, now that they were here, at
the edge of the scrub, with nothing but that empty space before them.
“You’ll be right behind me?” She asked. “I thought you didn’t
want them to see you.”

“They
won’t.”

Gabrielle exhaled.

“Gabrielle,
listen to me.” Xena said. “Only you can do this. None of us can.”
She indicated herself, then the other soldiers. “We have to get
into the city, we need allies.”

Xena grinned briefly, half
shrugging her shoulders. “Fortunes of war, my friend. That’s just
how it goes sometimes. One day you’re a bitch, the next, a savior.”

Gabrielle exhaled again,
then she finally nodded. “Okay. I”ll do my best, that’s all.”
She said. “Just please be careful, okay? I don’t want anything to
happen to you while I”m in there.” She put her arms around the
queen and gave her a hug.

Xena returned the hug. “You
be careful too.” She whispered into Gabrielle’s ear. “I don’t
want to lose you.” She released Gabrielle and gave her a nudge
towards where Patches was calmly standing, chewing a bit of plateau
grass. “G’wan.”

Feeling a little better, but
not much, Gabrielle went over to her pony and turned to face the
slope leading down to the road. Squaring her shoulders, she
started forward, holding Patches reins as the pony followed her
through the thick, high grass.

Almost at once, she felt
astonishingly alone. It was hard to leave the others, hard to
turn her back on their little cadre of men, and Xena’s tall,
watching form.

It would have been
unbearable, she thought, if she hadn’t had Patches with her. Though
he couldn’t speak, his warm, furry presence gave her a measure of
comfort, and she fell back to walk alongside him, her arm laying over
his neck as they emerged into the dim light of the setting moon, the
sky in the east beginning to pale with the coming dawn.

Ahead of her, she could see
the ribbon of the road, and even at this early hour there were dark
figures moving on it, horses with men on their backs thick with the
distinctive outline of weapons. Soon, she’d intersect the
path, and then…

And then.

You’re
the only one who can do this. Gabrielle
let the queen’s words echo in her mind, caught between being
flattered that there was this something she alone could do and shame
at her wanting to run away and not do it.

Scary. She took a deep
breath and settled her thoughts, thinking about what she would say to
the soldiers when she met up with them. Would they question
her? Xena had said for her to say she was just a wandering
shepherd, escaping from the strife in the valley, looking to make her
fortune.

Would they believe it?

She straightened her sleeve,
the thick, now clean linen feeling warm and good against her skin and
felt a little light with out the armor she’d come to accept and
gotten used to wearing. Now she just had the thick
undergarment, and her leggings and boots, with a leather belt tied
around her waist holding everything together.

It looked plain enough, but
Gabrielle knew no daughter of shepherding family would have dressed
the way she was, and no girl would have been traveling along the road
towards the port city without an escort.

Would Sholeh’s men know
that, though? After all, they were lead by a woman, weren’t they?’

Gabrielle led Patches down a
tricky, rock littered slope. “Careful, boy.” She murmured,
sliding sideways and sending a scattering of rock chips down through
the grass.

After a quarter candlemark,
she’d reached level ground, and now the road itself was hidden from
her, the grass waist high and tickling her arms as they pushed their
way through it. She unlooped her waterskin from it’s ring on
the pony’s back and took a drink from it, pausing when she caught
Xena’s scent on the leather.

That soothed her, strangely.
She put the skin back on it’s ring and shook her body out,
loosening her muscles as she walked, wishing she’d brought her
stick along with her. She’d gotten used to using it to feel her way
along, and she was a little surprised at how much she missed it
already.

Abruptly, they reached the
road, one moment walking through the thick grass, the next piercing
the wall of foliage and stepping into an open space, with the
packed, dirt path down the center of it. Gabrielle paused and
turned to look behind her, seeing the patch of scrub she’d left her
friends in far up the slope and very remote.

No sign of Xena.

“I
thought she said she’d be right behind me, Patches.” Gabrielle
sighed. “Oh well.” SHe turned and led the pony to the road, then
stopped again just before it and scrambled onto his back. Her
thighs settled into place, and she felt better for it, as Patches
ambled onto the port road and they started towards the city.

It was only a half
candlemark before she spotted mounted figures coming towards them,
lit by the growing dawn and recognizable by their profile as
soldiers. She could see the cone shaped helmets, and as they
closed in on her, the curved swords and her throat went a little dry

Closer, and she could see
the soldiers were looking at her. She cleared her throat and
tried to compose herself to appear as inoffensive and harmless as she
could, patting her pony on the neck and talking to him with forced
casualness.

“You
there.” The larger of the two men came right at her, while the
second fell back and drew his horse sideways, to block the road.
“Stop.”

Gabrielle’s heart was
thumping hard in her chest, but she complied, gently tugging Patches
to a halt. “Hello.” She greeted the man. “Is there
something wrong?”

He was tall, and had a
bearded face, reminding her a little of the blacksmith in her former
home that now seemed an entire lifetime away. “Where did you
come from?”

Gabrielle looked behind her.
“In one of the valleys, back there.” She indicated the
mountain range behind them.

The man studied her. “Where
do you think you’re going?”

“The
city there.” She pointed behind him. “I’m a storyteller. I
figure maybe there’s some inns there that could use one.”

“You
think so, huh?”

Gabrielle shrugged, lifting
both her hands. “Well, there’s not much left where I came from so
I figured it was worth a try.”

The man circled her, moving
his horse around Patches. It made her neck hair prickle, and she was
suddenly reminded of that morning in Xena’s chambers, when she’d
first met the queen and had been judged.

She refused to look behind
her, watching the other soldier instead. She kept her hands resting
on her saddlehorn and tried to relax, her ears cocked to listen to
the pocking of the horses hooves as the man paused.

The man in front of her
pulled his mount out of the way and clucked at it, moving past her
heading in the other direction, without a second glance in her
direction.

Gabrielle let out the breath
she’d been holding. “Okay. Bye!” She lifted her hand and waved,
as she nudged Patches forward, glad enough to leave the grumpy
soldiers behind her.

Well. First hurdle down. She
was glad and at the same time sorry to see the sun coming up and
bathing the road in pink light, as she could now see lines of
soldiers heading in her general direction, a stretch of gauntlets she
had to pass.

At least, she reasoned,
she’d have her story down pat before she reached the city gates.

If she reached them.

**

Xena was pretty well
convinced she was going insane. Surely, that had to be the
reason she was standing where she was, hugging a tree, locking her
arms around it’s trunk to prevent the rest of her from running full
speed down the road after that slight, dissappearing figure.

It was insane. It was
totally out of control and it was taking almost all the energy she
had just to stay still, much less intelligently plan an invasion.

“Um..
Xena?”

“Yes?”
The queen didn’t dare turn her head to look at the solider behind
her.

Xena squeezed one eye open
and peeked past the tree, relieved to see Gabrielle ambling along on
her scruffy runt pony, with no immediately dangerous idiots with
weapons near her. “Okay.” She gingerly released the tree and
stepped back. “Let’s move out.”

“I
thought we were going to wait for dark?” The soldier seemed
confused. “Won’t they see us, there’s no cover there.”

“Changed
my mind.” Xena fluffed her cloak out, then she started tucking the
folds of it around her. “Hope you boys enjoy a good crawl.”
She’d really never intended them to stay behind, after all, this
was Gabrielle she was sending into the maw of the enemy.

Her brain had told her it
was a good idea. It made sense, and she’d always known how to use
all her resources effectively.

Pity all that didn’t make
it easier for her not to scream out loud. “Let’s go.” She
flicked her hair loose from her collar and started along the forest
line, staying just inside the trees. Unfortunately they curved
away from the road towards the seawall, and as she moved along, she
kept one eye on the retreating figure getting further and further
from her.

It was making her teeth
itch.

Xena sighed, and cursed at
herself for the nth time. She swept her gaze over the plateau, and
tried to focus on her plan instead.

The high grass at least
would give them some cover, and as they reached the end of the
forest, she eased out into it, the tops of the stalks just
reaching her waist. A quick look to her right showed no
travelers on the road, and she took the chance of remaining upright
for the moment.

Their small force started
out across the long, sloping plain that bordered the road on both
sides, ending at the sturdy walls of the port city. As she
settled into a quiet, rhythmic stride, trying not to crane her neck
to watch Gabrielle, she was glad at least that they were doing
something, going on the offensive rather than just running.

Running bothered her. It
wasn’t that she was embarrassed by it, or thought it was cowardly
but..

Oh, who was she kidding?
Xena had to chuckle wryly. Her ego was freaking out at all this
hiding and skulking. “I wanna go kill something.”

“Majesty?”

“Nothing.”
Xena judged her bedmate was getting a little too far away for
her comfort, and decided to fix that. “Everyone get ready to hump.”

“Majesty??!!?”

The queen shook her head and
broke into a lope, hearing only her own footsteps for a long moment,
then slowly the herd rumbled into motion behind her in a jangle of
clinking armor and squeaking leather. With the vague though of
knowing now what it was like to be chased by an ox drawn wagon, she
powered on, staying as close to the clustered trees as she could.

**

It took a little while, but
since no other soldiers had approached her, Gabrielle found herself
relaxing a little bit, enough for her to stretch out her legs in her
stirrups and look around at the lands she was riding through.

It was pretty, really. The
long stretch of river grass was ruffling in the breeze, and it
brought a smell of rich green to her nose. It was quiet, though
the same breeze brought the sound of gulls to her ears, and she
remembered again how close to the ocean they were though it was
totally hidden behind the low cliffs.

Her fear was easing, though
the city walls were still far away and there was plenty of time for
her to panic again before she reached them. Until she did, though,
she figured she might as well enjoy the quiet ride as much as she
could and not wonder too much about where Xena was.

Or what she was up to. With
a sigh, she wriggled a little in her saddle and reached for her
saddlebag, fishing a bit of hastily cooked root from it and nibbling
on the edge. A sound made her look up, to find a single cart
moving slowly towards her, drawn by a tired looking donkey with wide,
wiggling ears.

It didn’t seem very
threatening, so she relaxed her hold on the reins that she’d
instinctively taken, and allowed Patches to continue his ambling way
down the road towards the cart. As they came closer, she could
see a figure sitting on the front of the cart, hunched over, resting
their elbows on their knees as they loosely held on to a set of slack
guides laying along the donkey’s back.

The figure casually looked
her way, and Gabrielle was mildly surprised to see it was another
woman. She promptly smiled at her. “Good morning.”

With a surprised start, the
woman straightened up, as they drew even with each other. “Morning.”
She replied. “Headed the wrong way, aintcha?”

Gabrielle pulled Patches to
a halt. She turned and looked behind her, then back at the woman.
“No, I don’t think so.” She politely disagreed. “I’ve been
there, it’s not much fun. Where are you going?”

The woman seemed a little
amused. “I”m following the army, of course.” She sat up a
little straighter, and pushed her hood back, exposing blond hair a
bit more yellow and a bit longer than Gabrielle’s. ‘You won’t
find much action back there.” She indicated the port city. “Stodgy
lot.”

Action? It took Gabrielle a
second, but she bravely surmounted her parochial beginnings and
realized the woman was talking about something other than a dice
game. “Ah.” She summoned up another, brief smile. “Well, I’m
not really looking for action. I’m a storyteller.”

“A
storyteller??” The other woman laughed out loud. “Good line.”
She clucked to her donkey. “I’ll have to remember that one. Yah!”

The donkey shook his head
and started forward, his worn, ill cared for harness squeaking sadly

“No,
really. I am.” Gabrielle found herself speaking to a small cloud of
dust raised by the wagons passing, it’s lengthened bed and empty
interior making clear it’s purpose. “Good luck.” She added,
shaking her head as she guided Patches past.

There hadn’t been women
like that in her hometown, at least… Gabrielle nibbled on her root
again. At least not those who advertised the fact. But on market
days, when they’d gone to the larger villages down the valley road
she’d seen women in the crowd, who wore their clothes a little too
open, and rubbed up against the men a little too much.

Harlots, her mother had
called them. Gabrielle gazed through Patches ears at the road, her
face thoughtful. Was she so different from that now? She wasn’t
for hire, of course, and it wasn’t llike she was looking for
‘action’ with anyone but Xena but still..

It was an unsettling
thought. She knew Xena seemed to be working hard to try and
make her a place at her side, but she’d always been told that
lovemaking was for those who married, and formed a family and she
wasn’t at all sure what she had with Xena really was anything like
that.

Of course, now with the war,
and all, it was sort of pointless for her to worry about it, yet..
Gabrielle looked down at the one piece of livery she’d kept on, the
belt with it’s hawks head buckle that held her shirt around her.

Yet. Her brow creased, then
she half shook her head, and looked around her again, pushing the
thoughts off. What they were didn’t matter as much as how
they felt, and she had really no doubt how Xena felt about her.

Did she? Certainly, she had
no doubt about how she felt about Xena. But now Xena had sent
her away, into this great unknown task and a little part of her was
wondering just a bit if the queen was just getting tired of her
and wanted a break.

It hurt to wonder about
that. Gabrielle sighed. She didn’t want to, and there was nothing
in Xena’s recent words or actions that made her think so, except
for her sudden decision to throw Gabrielle at the port city.

Or, was that just a good
plan? It certain made a little more sense then them running through
the forest trying to keep from being shot by Sholeh’s creepy
assassins or stumbling over more former farmboys wanting to go back
home.

Patches snorted. Gabrielle
reached up and scratched her ear. “Am I being silly, Patches?”
She asked the pony. “Xena loves me, doesn’t she?”

The pony snorted and waggled
his head, extending his nose over to the side of the road where the
grass grew temptingly close.

Patches snagged a mouthful
of tall grass and kept walking, chewing the grass.

Hoofbeats other than his
made Gabrielle look up again, this time to see a squadron of soldiers
trotting towards her in a businesslike way, taking up all the road
from one side to the other. “Uh oh.” She looked to either
side of the road, and saw only thick grass. “Guess we better get in
there, Patches.”

She urged the pony off the
road and felt the rasp of the grass against her as the soldiers
closed in, their helmets turning to study her as they got closer.
The two nearer to her drew their weapons and swerved towards
where she and Patches were standing, brandishing their swords and
letting out lusty yells.

This was not looking good.
Gabrielle’s eyes widened, and as the horses thundered down on top
of her, she did the only thing she could think of. “Yah!” She
kicked Patches in the side with her heels and clamped her knees down
tight as the pony bolted, the grass lashing them both painfully as he
picked up speed.

She could smell the horses,
and the leather, and the steel and her shoulder slammed hard into
something before she ducked her head and they squirted through the
charge as the men rushed past with yells and laughter.

But there was no time to
listen, as she concentrated on staying aboard her racing pony, the
wind blowing her hair straight back as she squinted into it, hoping
the soldiers would just ride on past and not chase her.

She really really hoped they
wouldn’t.

**

“Ah
bu..bu.. Bu..” Xena clamped her jaw down hard on a yell of outrage,
one hand clenched around a hapless stalk of river grass, the other
holding her chakram all ready to decapitate. She was alone,
having outdistanced her men in a mad speed crawl through the grass
that had left her skin half cut to ribbons by the sharp edges and her
heart pretty much flopping around in her throat. “Stupid son
of a…”

The soldiers kept laughing
and rode on, hardly looking back at the bolting pony putting distance
between them, and unaware of the fuming woman a bodylength off the
road almost close enough to grab their horses tails.

Xena half wanted to kill
them anyway. Only the fact that it would blow her plan kept her
from loosing her weapon as she felt her heartbeat start to slow and
the tension of near battle ease from her body.

Stupid jerks. She realized
the men were just playing with Gabrielle, acting out to scare the
lone peasant, and they’d been young themselves to boot. Sholeh’s
regulars though, now that she knew what the rank markings meant she
could tell at a glance.

That’s what had made her
run. The conscripts she figured Gabrielle would have no problem
with, after all, they all probably knew someone just like her back
home.

Xena pondered that. Well,
maybe not JUST like her. She put her weapon away and started
back towards where she’d left her ragtag little force, crouching
low and moving along in a crablike fasihion that was actually far
more uncomfortable than it looked.

Good for the thighs, but
lousy for the back. Xena could feel the strain already, and by the
time she met up with her rapidly crawling companions she felt like
laying down and taking a nap. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of her
options so she merely changed her direction and started towards the
port city again. “C’mon.”

“M..
M.. Xena.” One of the men panted. “Is the little one all right?”

“Yeah,
she’s fine.” The queen replied shortly, motioning Jens forward.
“Speed that runt was going, she’s gonna be at the gates in a
candlemark.”

“Aye.”
Her captain agreed. “Won’t be able to catch her. Not now.” He
said. “Specially not like we’re moving.”

“Right.”
Xena stopped and turned, and the men hastily hauled up not to crash
into her. “Let’s make for the forest. We’ll take the edge
there, and run for it.” She decided, getting up and cautiously
lifting her head over the edge of the grass.

There were a few lone
figures on the road, but they were moving steadily, and her sharp
eyes detected no motion towards her as she stood to her full
height. “Move it.” She turned and led the way back towards the
tree line, it’s far off darkness offering safety, but no view of
the road.

Well, not like she could see
anything anyway. The queen glumly admitted, glad at least to be
upright. She forged ahead, impatiently shoving the grass aside,
daring anything to pop up in her way.

**

“Wh..
Wh..whoa!” Gabrielle finally got herself upright in the
saddle, and pulled back on the reins, feeling Patches buck a little
under her as the pony slowed down. “Easy! Easy Patches!”

Her throat hurt, and she had
dust in her eyes, making her blink furiously as she finally got her
mount to stop. She turned and looked behind her, but the road was
empty as far as she could see, and she stuck her tongue out and
panted as she waited for her heart to stop racing.

Patches pulled at his reins
and walked over to the side of the road, nibbling on the river grass,
oblivious to his rider’s distress.

“Boy.”
Gabrielle wiped her brow with a shaking hand. “That was sure
scary.” She looked around, feeling very much alone there on
the road. ‘I guess Xena’s really gone, huh?” She said. “For
sure she’d have gone after those guys, wouldn’t she?”

Of course, Patches didn’t
answer. With a heavy heart, Gabrielle gathered herself up and nudged
the pony to keep going down the road. They moved at a slow
walk for a few minutes, then she decided she was over being out in
the open waiting for things to happen to her, and wondering what the
city was going to bring. “Heck with it, let’s go.”

She pressed her knees
against the shaggy sides and held on as Patches pace increased, until
they were at a rolling canter, the breeze fresh against them.
Gabrielle fixed her eyes on the walls now looming on the
horizon, getting over her fear, and starting to view the closed gates
with something of a sense of adventure.

Why not? It wasn’t like
she could do anything else anyway. If she went the other way, for
sure Sholeh would catch her, and she had a feeling the Persian didn’t
much care for the likes of a smart mouthed peasant.

So if Xena wanted to send
her on an adventure alone, well, then she’d make the most of it.
She straightened her back, and tried to imagine herself the
wandering storyteller Xena had made her out to be, out to make her
fortune in the wild unknown ahead of her.

As the road began to slant
down towards the city, she spotted a wagon train moving towards her.
It looked like supplies, and she wondered if it was for Sholeh’s
army. There were mounted guards with it, and the wagons were being
pulled by big draft horses.

They didn’t take up the
whole road, she noticed, keeping to one side, and their progress
looked orderly and reasonablly sedate. The lead guard, though, lifted
his hand as she approached and rode a little in the center, not quite
blocking her way.

But not quite not. Gabrielle
again slowed her mount down, but this time, she felt more sure in her
story. “Hello.” She greeted the man, managing a friendly smile to
go with it.

The man lowered his hand.
“Greetings.” He responded courteously. “Have you come
from the pass?’

Dicey question. “From
around there, yes.” Gabrielle temporized. “It’s kind of a
scramble right now.” She explained, giving a little shrug of
her shoulders as she watched the man’s face closely.

“The
fight’s still on then?” The man seemed surprised. “The army
hasn’t moved through? We had orders to start after them this
morning.”

Gabrielle thought fast.
“Well, I don’t know much about that.” She admitted. “But I
passed a lot of soldiers on this side of the mountain, if that’s
any help to you.”

The guard turned to his
companion, who had ridden up. “Strange, Ellis. We thought they’d
be through and rolling through t’old bitches front door
b’now.

“Aye.”
The man agreed. “Better get moving if they’re to make the
schedule. Maybe that’ rag tag lot gave em a heartburn after all.”

“Doubt
that, from all I hear.” The first guard said. “Well, any way, a
good day to you, girl. Headed for the city? Can’t blame you.
Nothing going to be left the way you came from.”

Gabrielle felt a chill go
down her back. “What do you mean?” She paused, when the man
cocked his head at her, in some suspicion. “I mean.. My family’s
back there.” She added. “Back in the valley.”

The man relaxed. “Well,
lass, hope you weren’t too fond of em.” He said. “Army’s
gonna sweep through, take everything, and everyone they can. Men for
the troops, women.. “ He chuckled. “Hope you hadn’t a sister,
eh?”

“Um..”

“Stocks
for food. This army’s on the move, will be, up the river and taking
no prisoners.” The man said, briskly. “So were I you, young lass,
I’d get me back behind them walls, and get yourself a place, eh?
Find some old woman needs a pair of hands, fore you end up in the
service of the service, if you catch me.”

Gabrielle suddenly
remembered the rape in the barracks, the fellow slave she’d seen
misused so cruelly she’d never truly recovered from it. “I catch
you.” SHe answered, faintly. “Yeah, that’s a really good
idea.”

She thought of all the men
in the army, dispersed at Xena’s orders, who she knew in her heart
were probably still on the other side of that pass waiting for their
queen.

She thought of all those
poor villagers, already in a sense raped by Bregos and his men,
sitting targets for Sholeh to use.

She understood, finally, the
look in Xena’s eyes when she’d come back from Sholeh’s tent.

“Go
on with you then.” The man said, in a surprisingly kind voice. “Got
a little one looks like you back home myself.” He pulled his
horses head around, and motioned with his fist for the wagons to roll
forward. “No one said stop, so on we go. Maybe we can
chivvy em.”

Gabrielle waited for them to
pass, then she started on again, her guts churning with a myriad of
emotions and just as many doubts as the big gates started stretching
up over her head, and the sound of the city came to her.